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TVNewser, NY Times

Chuck Todd’s Vision for ‘Meet the Press’ — and What the NBC News Boss Is Saying About Why David Gregory Got the Boot

Aug 26, 2014  •  Post A Comment

Chuck Todd, who will take over the host role on NBC’s “Meet the Press” next month, told “Today” that his goal is to “demystify Washington for the American public,” reports TVNewser.

“The job of all of us, particularly in political reporting, is to demystify Washington for the American public, but then also try to translate the American public’s frustration for out of touch Washington people,” Todd said. “That’s part of the challenge, that’s part of when things are going well in the political journalism world it’s because we’re playing that role of basically being the translator, being the interpreter between America and Washington.”

Meanwhile, NBC News President Deborah Turness told Bill Carter of The New York Times that she tried to work with David Gregory, the ousted “Meet the Press” host, to make changes. “We weren’t able to build a new vision together in the end,” she said.

Turness wants to add a regular panel of journalists who will question guests, the story notes.

“The show needs more edge,” she told The Times. “It needs to be consequential. I think the show had become a talking shop that raked over the cold embers of what had gone on the previous week. The one-on-one conversation belongs to a decade ago. We need more of a coffeehouse conversation.”

chuck todd

Chuck Todd

3 Comments

  1. Does anyone watch these awful Sunday morning political shows anymore? Some time ago, I grew so tired of the incessant partisan grandstanding and bickering by all the (usual) participants that I stopped watching entirely. Absolutely not worth time and irritation.

  2. I check out who is going to be on them – if it’s the regular faces (McCain, Wasserman-Shultz, L. Graham, etc.) I can pretty much answer the questions for them – I’m done with agenda setting guests who are looking for an opportunity to set the week’s talking points.
    This is where a host can make a difference – like Russert or Bob S. over at CBS – asking questions AND follow-up question, after follow-up question to get them off the talking points. Get the guest almost to the point where they may not want to come back – but they will and they’ll be better prepared and more thoughtful with their answers – rather than just spewing talking points

  3. If the panel is like the MTP panel of old, then it could get interesting. I worry when Todd says his role is to translate — sounds like a scribe with a language skill instead of a newsman in search of a story. Russert used to knock the talking heads off their talking points occasionally, and that made it interesting. But he also trotted out that “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” team — Carville and Matalin — so often that it diminished the credibility of the show. When did we buy into this notion that the truth has two equally and opposing sides, made up of the kooks in either camp? It will be interesting to watch Todd take over Gregory’s “class” at this point in the “school year.” David Gregory tolerated a lot of bad habits. Chuck Todd will have to rein them in, all the while knowing that Fox and old BS at CBS will compete for bookings of the newsmakers” who Todd may have a hard time corralling.

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